Enough Space for a Heartbeat
by A Beauty to the Rhythm
Summary: "Kate tilts her cup slowly, savoring the way the flavor rolls richly through her mouth. They've been in Albania for less than seven hours and she's in love with the coffee." Castle and Beckett finally get around to going on their honeymoon. 2nd Place Winner in the Castle Summer Hiatus Contest.


_A/N: I'm incredibly grateful to the judges and organizers of the Castle Hiatus Contest. Very honored to be the second place winner! Hope you enjoy!_

Enough Space for a Heartbeat

Kate tilts her cup slowly, savoring the way the flavor rolls richly through her mouth. They've been in Albania for less than seven hours and she's in love with the coffee.

The fading light casts blue shadows over the cobbled courtyard below their balcony. The streets are quiet in a way that Manhattan could never be, the silence broken only by the ting of silverware being put away or the hazy crackle of an old radio being tuned.

Castle is still sprawled out on the wide bed in their hotel room, face half-buried in the pillow, body deliciously limp. He'll blame it on the jet lag, but she's pretty sure his exhaustion has more to do with him getting a little … overzealous when he'd seen their room. There were chocolates and champagne waiting for them, naturally, but there was also a freakin' _mirror_ on the ceiling. She'd rolled her eyes at the cheesiness of it, but being able to watch him work above her, seeing her own flushed passion reflected back at her - it had been intoxicating.

She bites her lip to slow the bloom of her love-struck grin. Her fear of become a boring couple has proved to be completely unfounded; a year of marriage hasn't slowed either of them down at all.

It's only been a year, but she's starting to forget what it was like _not_ to be married to Richard Castle. The ring she wears no longer feels heavy and foreign on her finger. It had taken them months to book their replacement honeymoon after the disaster of their wedding day robbed them of their three weeks in the Maldives. She's so glad they went back to the idea of going somewhere neither of them had ever been. Albania is gorgeous, full of old-world magic and fairy-tale forests.

Somewhere in the village a woman starts to hum, a low lullaby that rolls through stone and wood. A glimmer of light catches Kate's eye, floating like an ember thrown from a crackling fire. It flares and fades again, closer this time, just inches from her bare knee.

It's a firefly.

She doesn't believe in ghosts or aliens or Bigfoot, but she does believe in beauty, and this moment, this place, the rooftops gilded with the last vestiges of glowing sunlight, is perfection.

Wow. She's clearly been spending too much time with Castle if she's thinking in poetic sentences like that. But then the man in question stumbles onto the balcony, rubbing his eyes like a little boy, and she realizes there's no such thing as too much time with Castle.

She smiles up at him and offers a sip of her coffee. "Hey there, sleeping beauty."

"Hey." He leans over and kisses the top of her head. She used to cringe when previous boyfriends did that, but with Castle, she actually likes it. Maybe because it reminds her of a certain late night in the precinct when he'd told her that she was his family.

"Did you get any sleep?" he asks.

"Not really."

Castle waggles his eyebrows. "Round one of honeymoon sex didn't wear you out?"

"Not as much as it did you, apparently."

"What, that little nap? I was just sleeping off the jet lag."

"Mmhmm, I'm sure," she says, tugging him to the balcony railing. "Come look at the fireflies."

He comes in close, winding his arms around her, and she leans back into the broad warmth of him. Her partner. Her _husband_.

"So, since you woke me up with your very loud thinking, the least you can do is tell me what you were thinking about."

"Can't a girl have any secrets, Castle?"

"She can, as long as most of them can be kissed out."

He sets to work doing just that, lips soft when they meet hers, reverent almost, and the gratitude she feels for this man threatens to eclipse her.

She draws back. "If you must know, I was just thinking about how stunning this moment is, and how thankful I am to be in a place in my life where I can just slow down and absorb it."

He's quiet, having learned long ago that she'll almost always share more if he's still and patient.

"I finally feel _whole_, Castle."

He leans in for another kiss, but she stops him with the gentle press of her thumb to his lower lip. There's something else she needs to tell him, and she won't be able to concentrate on the slide of his mouth on hers until she's confessed.

"I sense a 'but' coming," he says.

"But … there's still something missing."

His face softens. She recognizes the look - it's the one he wears whenever they talk about her mother. But it's not that. It hasn't been, not since she ratcheted the cuffs onto Bracken's wrists. The day after the arrest, she'd gone to the cemetery and buried the chain that had held her mother's ring for fifteen long years. The ring itself has taken pride of place on her dresser, nestled in the box that had once held her own engagement ring.

She takes her husband's face in her hands, smudging the crinkled lines of his crow's feet with her thumbs.

"I'm ready, Castle. I want to start trying for a baby."

For a moment he's absolutely silent, possibly more still than she's ever seen him, even in sleep. And then he smiles, breaking open with luminescent joy. She can't help but smile back. When her cheeks start to ache, she hides her face in his shoulder.

Castle picks her up so suddenly that she yelps. He uses his palms to guide her legs around his waist as he strides back into the bedroom.

"How convenient, Mrs. Castle. That's exactly what honeymoons are for."


End file.
